


A Promise Well-Kept

by lilflowerpot



Category: Akatsuki no Yona | Yona of the Dawn
Genre: Gen, I just wanted to write more about my angsty sunshine child tbh, set after the HHB take back Kouka, sort of vague and flowy I guess, spoilers for chapter 99+
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-26
Updated: 2015-12-26
Packaged: 2018-05-09 12:40:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,764
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5540354
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lilflowerpot/pseuds/lilflowerpot
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <i>All she needed to do was refute him, deny what he knew to be true and it would all be okay. This could all have been one ridiculous mistake, they could blame it on the paranoia of an old man and continue living happily as Kouka prospered and-</i>
</p>
<p>
  <i>“I promised that I wouldn’t leave you alone on this earth again.”</i>
</p>
<p>
  <i>The calm acceptance in her eyes was terrifying. <i></i></i>
</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Promise Well-Kept

It was as if tiny little fingertips were drumming against the inside of his throat, a dry tickle so foreign that it took several days for him to realise what it was.

Illness.

Not in any serious sort of a way; it was merely a dry cough, the palace physician assured him, give it another week, maybe two, and the worst of it should have passed. Except the Ouryuu didn’t get sick. When he tried explaining this to the man with a sort of worn bitterness, his only answer was a short laugh and some comment or another about Lord Hakuryuu having proclaimed something similar last winter, shortly before being confined to his bed for almost a full month because he had _idiotically_ attempted to continue his usual routine of strenuous daily training. Zeno tried again, patiently spelling it out for the greying man and clarifying that just as Hakuryuu had his arm, Ouryuu had his ~~damnable~~ health, and so he simply _could not be ill_.

“Tell that to the gods.” Had been the amused reply.

Bewildered, the blond sat by himself, taking in the sort of heavy feeling his skull seemed to have acquired. He had only taken up residence in the castle again a little over a year ago, and he supposed that for anyone other than those versed in the myths of old (what an odd thing for his past to have been reduced to) or better yet, those who had seen him on the battlefield, believing in the particular abilities which had been bequeathed upon him was rather rare. Even so, that didn’t invalidate the two thousand years or so he’d spent in solitude, nor did it explain why his nose had apparently decided that breathing was no longer a useful function.

Ancient eyes landed upon the silver letter opener, lying innocently upon his desk.

Yona would have his head for this.

Gingerly, he ran the blade across the tip of his thumb. He was careful, he knew how his King so hated to see any of her dragons injured, both in this life and the last. Just because he healed didn’t mean she cared for him using such an ability.

Except he wasn’t healing.

The blood beaded atop his thumb, swelling gently before carving a trail of crimson down the palm of his hand. As Zeno watched, another droplet began to form until that too followed its predecessor. The cycle continued and still the cut remained.

There was a clatter as metal dropped to the floor from numb fingers, but he paid it no mind and instead stared, transfixed, at the tiny wound. A few minutes more and the bleeding had stopped, but only because the blood had clotted. Clotted, not healed. Not disappeared.

 

He bolted into the throne room so fast that even Jae-ha hadn’t time to dodge.

The pile of dragons on the floor caused Yoon to yelp in surprise, dropping all his scrolls from where he’d been talking Yona through the final stage of their plan to flush Nadai out of the country once and for all. Ignoring Kija’s spluttering, Zeno embraced his brothers fiercely. He tried and failed to explain his elation, finally resorting to releasing his captives only to sit back and jut his thumb out in disbelief.

At first, no one reacted; Jae-ha and Kija looking in equal parts confused, while Shin-ah kept his usual face of impassiveness. Then all at once, Yona engulfed him in her arms and he was sobbing, sobbing with so much delight and several hundred years of heartache, because “You’re bleeding” had never sounded so beautiful.

 

Another year and the kingdom was stable, while its Queen was with child.

Yona practically glowed through the whole nine months, floating around the palace with such a blissful aura that not a single person she came across could leave without a smile of their own. At first it had panicked Zeno, because despite her countenance he was sure she was shrinking in on herself, almost as if she were wasting away, but then it occurred to him.

A growth spurt.

At his age it sounded ridiculous, his height had stopped bothering him after the first few decades of immortality, but Jae-ha had laughed and said that he too had gained most of his height at nineteen so in terms of Zeno’s _physical_ body it really wasn’t that odd at all. Still, being able to look Kija dead in the eye took some getting used to.

The best thing about his newfound height was decidedly having longer legs, something he found very useful for jumping walls, scaling trees, or running to his lady’s bedchamber in the dead of night because by the time they’d found him they thought it might be too late.

While pregnancy had agreed with her, childbirth had not.

There was blood, apparently, far too much, and they hadn’t accounted for the child being quite so large. A good sign in many ways, a large baby was a healthy one after all, but the new heir may have just cost the old one her life.

As dawn broke, Yona herself strode out of her chambers, a little dark-haired bundle swaddled in white held close to her chest. The doctors and handmaidens who swarmed behind her were practically begging that she return to bed, claiming she should even be _able_ to move considering how much blood she’d lost, but their Queen dismissed them with a blithe wave of her hand, insisting that she’d never felt better.

She’d never looked better actually.

 

Hak swung the young prince into the air effortlessly while the boy’s mother watched on from the edge of the gardens. Her son squealed happily, already quite vocal in his wants despite having only just seen his second year on this earth.

“Young miss?”

She hummed lightly, indicating to Zeno that he had her attention despite violet eyes never leaving the picturesque image of her family.

“May Zeno walk with you for a while? He has something he needs to talk about.”

Perhaps it was the tone of his voice that gave it away, but this time she did look at him – past the time worn smile which he’d perfected over the years and right through his flawless façade.

“Of course.”

She held his arm lightly, and they walked in hushed companionship through the winding halls of the palace until neither could hear the child’s innocent squealing beyond the thick wood of the throne room’s weighty doors.

“So, why have you gathered us here old man?” Jae-ha’s bemused drawl rang clearly through the otherwise silent hall.

The blond slipped his arm from Yona’s grasp and she let him, her hands falling away to rest at her sides without complaint. He took a few steps towards the others before turning to face her.

“Tell Zeno that he’s wrong.”

She made no move to speak, so nor did he. The other dragons shifted uncomfortably at the tense air which had so quickly fallen across the room, but Zeno wouldn’t relent on this, he simply couldn’t.

“What’s going on?” Jae-ha’s smile had fallen into a frown of discomfort.

Still the Queen stood in silence, and Shin-ah shifted somewhat restlessly from where he stood a little away from the others.

“ _Please, Yona._ ”

He didn’t remember ever having used her name before, but this was important. All she needed to do was refute him, deny what he knew to be true and it would all be okay. This could all have been one ridiculous mistake, they could blame it on the paranoia of an old man and continue living happily as Kouka prospered and-

“I promised that I wouldn’t leave you alone on this earth again.”

The calm acceptance in her eyes was terrifying.

“So I made sure that I found a way. As soon as we’d reclaimed the Kingdom I asked Ik-soo to contact the gods for me.”

Stop stop _stop._

“It took some time, but eventually they - Ouryuu - spoke to me.”

He could feel it in his throat, so much worse than that first sign of his returned mortality. This was a creature of nausea and fear, clawing its way through his insides.

“We worked out a deal.”

“What…” This time it was Kija who interrupted her, raw fear in his eyes. “What are you saying?”

The corner of Yona’s painted lips tugged upwards into a sort of defeated smile, her eyes flickering to meet those of Hakuryuu – wide, scared – before returning to the blond.

“You don’t have to suffer anymore.”

His tongue a leaden weight in his mouth, throat dry and uncooperative, Zeno stumbled forward numbly. He tried to reach for her face but his legs gave way before he could, resulting in him kneeling before her with one slim wrist grasped between trembling fingertips. Inhaling shakily, he forced his cracked voice from between dry lips.

“Please.”

Raising his face to look upon her once more, he saw that his King’s expression was closed off and cold in the face of her dragon’s pleas. Though he felt no shame at the hot tears which welled in his eyes - nor did he so much as consider looking away from that stony visage - the sharp knife of guilt twisted in his gut at the momentary flicker of hurt behind her eyes.

“Please, give it back.”

She shook her head slowly, eyes fluttering at his broken expression as her hand quivered in his.

“I won’t. Not ever.”

“ _Why?_ ” His voice broke, shattering to pieces under her conviction as he recalled two thousand years’ worth of pain, pain he would gladly experience a hundred times over if only to spare her a moment of it. “I am meant to protect you, I was _always_ meant to protect you… _Please_ Yona, please don’t do this to yourself.”

She shook her head again, this time with a little desperation seeping into the action as tears of her own swelled at the corners of her eyes.

“I can’t, Zeno.”

“Yes you can.” His voice was barely a whisper. “You have to, I won’t let you-” _Suffer_ he was going to say, but the word died on his lips as something too cruel to tell the woman for whom he had taken up such a burden in the first place.

At his pause, she smiled, and his heart broke all over again.

“I know.”

Her words were whispered as she fell to her knees before him, embracing her beautiful broken golden dragon with all the regret she had from this life and the last.

“I know, and I’m sorry.”


End file.
